The invention relates to a housing, preferably for hand held devices, as an enclosure which is particularly suitable for electronic circuits with indicators and/or operating elements, consisting of housing parts which fit together and interlock.
The type of housing referred to is already known from the commonly-owned German Patent Application No. P 33 4 272.5. This housing consists of a section of an extruded tubular profile of variable length and two end pieces, or end caps, which close the ends of the tubular profile. The disadvantage of this type of housing is that it can only be entered from the ends. Furthermore, with extruded profiles longitudinal ridges occur which have a particularly disturbing optical effect with transparent housings.
The German published patent application No. DE-OS No. 32 30 545 discloses a housing which consists of two interlocking half-box shaped parts. These form a housing of a fixed size so that for any other size of housing other housing parts are necessary which require other molds for their production. Moreover, with this type of housing, after the initial interlocking the housing parts can only be opened again by damaging or destroying the housing. As such, multiple use is impossible.
In addition, the German published patent application No. DE-OS No. 30 04 271 shows a modular housing which, although its length is variable, consists of numerous different components, such as base plates, side pieces, corner pieces and top cover, which means that an individual mold is required to produce each part. Even for the smallest possible size of housing, a minimum of five components are needed. Also, it is only possible to vary the length of the housing in steps which have been predetermined by the manufacturer. This means that universal application with a free choice over the size of the housing is excluded. Finally, the housing is not intended for hand-held applications, rather only for wall mounting.